Two men and a woman from Great Yarmouth given life sentences after admitting “sadistic” murder

Andrew Brown will serve a minimum of 23 years for the murder of Derek Blake.

Archant

Two men and a woman from Great Yarmouth have today been given life sentences totalling 61 years after admitting the “sadistic” murder of a man who was found submerged in a bath in a flat.

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Ricky Roys

The body of 44-year-old Derek Blake was found submerged in the bath of a property in St Nicholas Road in the town. He was partially clothed and had been covered with pieces of carpet, clothing, towels and bedding.

A postmortem examination revealed Derek had been subjected to a ‘prolonged and sustained’ attack involving a variety of weapons including several different knives, a claw hammer, a pool cue and crockery.

He had injuries ranging from deep cuts to his face, scalds to his back, sides and stomach, multiple bruises across most of his body, to a broken jaw, nose, breast bone and ribs.

Brown was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years, Roys to a minimum of 20 years and Cooke to a minimum of 18 years in jail.

All three had been socialising with Derek in the hours leading up to his death on Wednesday 23 May 2012, in Brown’s flat in St Nicholas Road. Neighbours heard shouting and screaming over several hours and forensic evidence showed he had been assaulted in many of the rooms.

Further examinations also revealed that there was an attempt to clean the property after Derek’s death.